A joke?

What’s the difference between roast beef and pea soup? (see bottom for answer)

It’s only January and I’m already starting to think about my garden. I couldn’t help it- I ordered a book. I’m super excited about it. It’s called “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible” and I can’t wait for it to get here. I guess this book gives you all sorts of tips on how to raise an organic garden successfully. It tells you all about how to create healthy soil, what to do in raised beds, how to control pests and disease without damage, even what veggies not to plant together! This will be my 3rd year doing this and I can’t wait to finally have some guidance. My garden was more successful last year than it was the year before, so I am super excited this year. I also think some of my motivation for getting some kind of instruction (besides good ol’ common sense) was that in May I will have a 3 month old, and I would like things to run as smoothly as possible so I won’t feel overwhelmed or directionless. I’m also really happy about the garden because by the time baby starts to try other food I will have (hopefully) stockpiles of fresh, organic, basic vegetables that baby can eat. I hope to do much better with storing food too. My grandparents gave Gretchen their chest freezer, which we are going to share. I’m thinking that will come in really handy for easy storage (all the stuff I won’t want to/ don’t have time to can). Anyway, much more to come on that later. It’s only January. It’s only January…

Jan 3rd:I toasted this bagel. I thought it to be merely a quick breakfast at first. But then… it smiled at me. And then I ate it. Yum.

Jan 4th:We got this clock for Christmas and I absolutely love it.

Jan 5th:I love a good houseplant. This was our xmas tree this year. Usually we find a small potted tree that we can decorate and plant afterwards. Unfortunately all we could find this year were pathetic little things that were already loosing their needles and had strings of plastic presents glued to them. I thought this was a preferable alternative. We even put a nice bird ornament on it. Hooray!

I’ve been hanging out with a lot of old friends lately- spending a few hours just talking with people. I’ve been loving it. It’s interesting how much people, and I for that matter, feel it’s important to get in quality time before the baby comes. It’s hard to believe I only have a little over a month left. I’m sure it’s partially the fear of the unknown… being able to anticipate drastic changes probably motivates us to mentally prepare in some way and savor what we perhaps didn’t before. Jeff’s birthday is next weekend and I’ve been thinking all about how to make it all really fun and special for him. I think I want this for him in part because I know that this may be the last birthday for a while that we can splurge a little on him. Tonight is date night and I have been trying to come up with fun ideas to try to make our last quiet nights for a while really special. I know that this baby will make everything different and wonderful. I know that we will also want to remember the time before though, and so I’m making it a priority to just live each day vigorously.

My sister-in-law got me an appointment to go get henna done on my belly and get a massage. They take professional pictures too, so soon I will have some really cool belly pictures.

I’ve been feeling really lovely lately. Just peaceful and accepting and excited. Life is good.

Comments (13)

we are thinking about veggies over here too! Isiah planted garlic a few months ago and I can’t wait to see the scapes come above the ground, if they grow!! I have a bunch of old expired seeds from 2003 that someone gave me and we were gonna see if we could get them to sprout. If not we werent sure where to buy our seeds/plants this year. Any suggestions?

I bet some of your garlic will sprout! As soon as I get that book I will let you know what it says about garlic and stuff. It also has sources for seeds, etc (so far I’ve been trying to only deal locally- especially since we don’t really have space to start plants indoors yet). Anyway, I think garlic is one of those things you can sew a couple of times a year so all will not be lost if those are duds.

Haha, my mother used to kill everything- even super hardy succulents. Now she has plants all over the house that are blooming and looking great. So don’t give up just yet. I think it may have something to do with little children pulling on your shirt. Oh man, I’m next!

You look totally blooming and gorgeous in your pregnant state and I think getting your belly hennaed is such a lovely idea I wish I’d thought of that!

Your little sprout is going to love those home-grown veggies. I’ve just started weaning Zakary but we haven’t made it past the baby rice stage yet but I’m really excited about being able to introduce him to veggies and fruit. Sadly as I’ll be living in an appartment they’ll be farm-brought organic rather than home-grown though.